TEHILLIM 46

1 (To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A Song upon Alamoth.) Elohim is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

...in the midst of all—the very severest, the most threatening, the most calamitous, yea, even to the verge of death and unto death itself—it is a standing consolation that God reigns, though He appears not to do so, and that all things work together for God to those who love Him, who are the called according to His purpose.

The consolation applies even to matters that are not matters of calamity, but of care only. We can understand what Jesus means when he says,

"Take no thought (care, worrying, anxiety) for tomorrow."

We can respond to this intelligently and thankfully in faith. We remember that he said,

"Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of,"

and that if we seek first the kingdom of God, these things will be provided, even as they were for all the fathers now sleeping. Believing this, we can rest, obeying that other exhortation which says,

"Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you."

This is a great protection from the feverish care of temporal things that consumes the soul of those who have not set God before them: it is a constant solace in the midst of a generation that is bent on providing a reserve of the wherewithal to eat, drink, and be clothed.

Sunday morning 338.

2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

A very present help in trouble

This lesson belongs to our present life. There are times, no doubt, when it is more applicable than others; and, probably, its greatest application will be when the world, in its present constitution, is being torn to pieces by the destroying judgments of the coming time of trouble. Still, it belongs, in its breadth, to the troubled life we now live in the flesh.

Every man that truly learns the truth, learns to feel in his inmost breast, a confidence in God that reaches below the ordinary and proximate occupations of his mind. This confidence is the backbone of the new man, the central pillar of the house, preserving and sustaining when other things would fail.

It is a confidence resting on knowledge: it is not a matter of temperament or craniology. The best temperament and organization may lack it; the poorest may possess it; though, doubtless, the best soil brings forth the best harvest in this as in all respects.

Sunday morning 64/338

The Christadelphian, May 1875

...our very troubles we take from God; they cease to frighten or distract; we take them as a needed correction from the hand of Him who doth not willingly afflict the children of men; for is it not written in the enlightening Word that

"Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."

If this was ever true of any of the children of God, it is true of all. If true in the days of Paul, it is not untrue in ours. True, we have no persecutors such as were common then; but we stand related to many sources of trouble, and God knows how to manipulate these so as to put us through the discipline required.

He knows what our cases require and will adapt our troubles accordingly. But in the midst of all—the very severest, the most threatening, the most calamitous, yea, even to the verge of death and unto death itself—it is a standing consolation that God reigns, though He appears not to do so, and that all things work together for God to those who love Him, who are the called according to His purpose.

This consolation leads us to join with a hearty "Amen,"

"Elohim is our refuge and our strength: therefore will we not be afraid."

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The Christadelphian, May 1875

4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of Elohim, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

These are the living waters mentioned in the prophecy of Zechariah which in summer and in winter are to flow from Jerusalem when there is one King over all the earth (Zech. xiv. 8, 9).

The banks of this river will be adorned with trees of a new genus - Ezk 47: 7.

On this side and on that side of the two rivers (verse 9, margin) shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed : it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary ; and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine (verse 12).)

The Temple of Ezekiel's prophecy 5.3.

9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

"In my great war chariot (named) 'Sweeper away of armies,' in the fury of my heart I drove rapidly."—Sennacherib.

The Christadelphian, Dec 1888

Weapons of Gog burned for 7 years Ezk 39: 9. Cleansing of the land.

War will be abolished by war, even the war of the great day of God Almighty, in which the power of man will be broken, and the arm of divine authority established in all the earth.

For the beginning of this mighty work we are waiting and longing. It will not begin till the Lord has set His own house in order in the judgment of His people. Therefore, we wait

"the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him."

This is the supreme event for us. The work to be done among the nations afterwards is nothing to us if we are not accepted; nay, worse than nothing; it will be to us terror and calamity; for the rejected are sentenced to "depart" to share in the fiery judgments that destroy the devil and his angels, or the world in its sin-constitution.

Therefore, our whole interest and anxiety are concentrated on the personal arrival of the Lord; and this re-acts powerfully on the present time, for our status at that time is determined by what we are now. The judgment seat will add nothing new to our case.

It may declare the forgiveness of our shortcomings, but it will not proclaim a faithfulness that does not now exist; it will be but a manifestation of our present selves as we appear in the light of the divine scrutiny. Our whole attention, therefore, ought to be given to our present walk and conversation. Our aim ought to be to walk as before God, giving diligence, as Peter exhorts, to make our calling and election sure.

The judgment of man will go for nothing on that occasion. Human approbation will be worthless if the divine approval is withheld: human condemnation will turn to great honour if the Lord be pleased with our work. Our wisdom is to make the Word (daily read) the man of our counsel and the guide of our steps.

Sunday morning 64

The Christadelphian, May 1875

10 Be still, and know that I am Elohim: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

I will be exalted

Apart from the truth, we could not help sharing the apprehension that prevails wherever there is intelligence enough to realise what is going on. But how different is the frame of mind created by the truth. So far from being afraid, we rejoice at the manifest tokens of the approaching day of God. We sing in our hearts,

"God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, will not we fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea."

But our right to rejoice in this comfort depends upon our relation to the second point. Let us look at this. It comes out of what is said in the 10th verse:

"Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen I will be exalted in the earth."

In this verse we have the whole policy of the divine operations in the earth condensed into a sentence as it were. "I will be exalted"

Look at what phase of the divine work we will, we shall find this is the result aimed at. Why did God afflict Egypt with great plagues, and drown Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea? Was it merely to deliver the enslaved Israelites? No.

"For this cause have I raised thee (Pharaoh) up, to show in thee my power, that my name may be declared in all the earth."

Why has God driven the children of Israel out of their land, and scattered them as wanderers among the nations? Because they forgot His name and His praise, casting away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despising the word of the Holy One of Israel. Why does He purpose their restoration from all the countries whither He has scattered them? That His name may be honoured in all the earth. He tells them,

"Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you. Be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel"—(Ezek. 36:32).

but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went."—(ver. 22.)

Why are the hordes of the northern Gog to be smitten on the mountains of Israel? That Israel may be delivered? Nay,

"I will bring thee against my land that the heathen may know me when I shall be sanctified in thee. O Gog, before their eyes.—(Ezekiel 38:16.)

And why, lastly, in our salvation has God adopted a procedure which stops every mouth, and makes all the world guilty before Him? That God may be glorified in the manifestation of favour, and that no flesh may glory in His presence.

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The Christadelphian, May 1875

...The great aim in the whole plan is to exalt God to the supreme place of honour in the recognitions and affections of men. Some shallow minds among unbelievers perceiving this, have called the God of the Bible a selfish tyrant. The suggestion is as essentially unreasonable as it is daringly blasphemous.

The supremacy of God means the well-being of men. There can be no peace on earth till there is glory to God in the highest. The highest well-being of man is in the holiest service of God. This is the case even now: how much more evident will it be when godly men are made immortal?

God is the fountain of all power, life, and faculty. He exists of Himself and by Himself from eternity. Estranged from Him or unsubject to Him, man must from his very constitution fail of well-being. When this is realised we shall mightily appreciate the wisdom and the goodness of God in aiming at His own exaltation in all His dealings with men.

But let us look at the practical application of this great and wide-reaching fact to our present individual cases. If God says "I will be exalted in the earth"—if this is the object of His past dealings with nations—is it not obvious that we must realise this result as individuals before we can be acceptable before Him?

Of what value at last will be our technical enlightenment in the truth if it fail in inducing the one great result aimed at in all its operations—the enshrining of the Deity in our hearts as the highest reverence, the strongest affection and the great moving power of our lives?

Wise men and women will see the answer for themselves. Jesus has placed this as

"the first and great commandment:" "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy strength and with all thy soul and all thy mind."

And since it is only those who "do His commandments" that will "enter through the gates into the city," we may be quite certain that no man will pass through those gates who lacks in the obedience of "the first and great commandment." The favoured multitude who pass those portals have

"the name of the Father written on their foreheads:"

what is this but the symbolic representation of that knowledge and love of God, which dwelling richly in the mind, enable their possessor to obey "the first and great commandment?"

Therefore, brethren, let us go on unto perfection

Sunday Morning 64/ 338.

I will be exalted in the earth - Psa 46: 10

His point of view is the governing one. The world forgets this - even the world that considers itself not the wicked world - the moral world - the religious world, the broad-minded, charitable, cultured world. They have invented for themselves a doctrine that is not in the Bible - that God is a universal Father and will save men without reference to their attitude to Him.

This doctrine is pleasing and convenient, but it is not true. The cross of Christ contradicts it.

Why did Christ die? Because of sin. And why is sin so dreadful as to require such an awful ingredient in the process of remedy! For the very reason that God is so great and terrible a majesty. This is the last thing that men of our generation rise to: yet it is the first lesson in true godliness - the godliness that God will accept (and none else is worth talking about).

God is good - God is love: but there is a method in the goodness which is its chiefest glory: This method insists on the indispensable conditions for the effectuality of goodness in wisdom and holiness. Goodness without wisdom and holiness, and the firmness that in 'consuming fire' insists on those conditions would not be goodness. The first of those conditions is God's supremacy: –

"I will be exalted." –I will be sanctified in them that approach unto me."

The second is absolute obedience. On these two points there has and cannot be the shadow of compromise in God's dealings with the earth. They are the two points that men instinctively dislike. Paul's words are not too strong. –The carnal mind - the mind of the flesh - the mind that the brain generates left to itself - is enmity against God: it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. He further says:

"They that are in the flesh cannot please God"

- that is, men who are animated by the views and principles that the flesh invents for itself, which is the sort of men all the world is composed of, of whatever age, country, or nation. We have only to allow reason to rule to see how purely reasonable and good are God's requirements in the matter, and how intrinsically absurd and mischief - working merely natural views are. God is self-subsistently the first. Nothing was before Him or could be. He has contrived all things, and all things subsist in Him.

Is it not reasonable, therefore, that His views should prevail? If there is any credit or glory arising out of man, is it not reasonable it should be to God and not to man at all, seeing it is of His hand man holds everything, and man made nothing?

Does not common honesty and common gratitude require that all thanks and all praise should be to Him, and that man, while highly gifted, should be humble and thankful?

Is it not robbery and barbarism for man to ignore God and take all the glory to himself when in truth none belongs to him?

Is it not the programme of the simplest justice that God should aim to fill the earth with His glory?

Seasons 2: 11

11 Yahweh Ts'baoth is with us; the Elohim of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

The truth is exotic: it comes from that "far country" wither Christ is said to have gone in the parable of the nobleman; it is not, therefore, indigenous to the mind of the flesh, but like the rain and the sunshine, it comes down from above, from the Father of lights, who is the author of every good and perfect gift.—(1 Cor. 2:9.)

Men may be considered in relation to two influences; viz., the truth believed and a lie believed; by the one the mind is serpentised, and by the other, it is spiritualised.—(2 Thes. 2:11; Rom. 8:5–6.)

When a man believes the truth he believes God, and when he loves the truth he loves God; and when he obeys the truth, he pleases God; and when the truth is a man's hope, "his hope is in the Lord his God."

Bro Shuttleworth

The Christadelphian, Jun 1875